Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan’s expertise may be in college wrestling, but he might excel even more in the world of professional wrestling as a “heel.” Consider the heavy-handed arm-twisting being employed to try and make him Speaker of the House.
“Several of Mr. Jordan’s supporters have posted the phone numbers of mainstream G.O.P. lawmakers they count as holdouts,” according to The New York Times.
One of the holdouts targeted was Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL). Like clockwork, Rogers joined other erstwhile Jordan opponents on Monday, announcing that he would support Jordan.
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Meanwhile, a producer for Fox News’s Sean Hannity reportedly began a thinly veiled pressure campaign by querying GOP House members about their refusal to support Jordan.
“Sources tell Hannity that rep xxxx is not supporting Rep Jim Jordan for Speaker,” an email purportedly sent from Hannity’s producer to one lawmaker reads. “Can you please let me know if this is accurate? And, if true, Hannity would like to know why during a war breaking out between Israel and Hamas, with the war in Ukraine, with the wide open borders, with a budget that's unfinished [,] why would Rep. xxxx be against Jim Jordan for speaker?”
Not since a Tucker Carlson questionnaire scared Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis into throwing Ukraine under the bus has “just asking questions” been so effective.
But will this intimidation be enough to overcome Jordan’s vote deficit?
The stakes are high. If Jordan wins, it means Republicans will have elected a speaker who opposes Ukraine funding and wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Joe Biden electoral votes.
What is more, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s insurgent strategy will have been successful, as a small group (just four percent) of House Republicans will have unilaterally ousted a House speaker—and replaced him with their chosen successor.
Some Republican members are sounding the alarm over the unspoken precedent. “I’m a ‘no’ on allowing Matt Gaetz and the other seven to win by putting their individual in as speaker,” said Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL) on Friday.
In response, Gaetz took to his Twitter feed, publicly calling out Rutherford. “I hope he gets some feedback from Floridians that this is selfish and bad for the country,” Gaetz declared.
If you’ve never been on the business end of a Twitter dragging, you might not appreciate how Gaetz’s call for “feedback” was tacitly urging his 2.4 million Twitter followers to harass Rutherford.
Some percentage of Gaetz’s followers will send mean tweets. Others will make phone calls. And others… Well, it’s hard to say what some small band of renegade followers might do.
These days, there’s a fine line between political threats (such as finding an opponent to “primary” a politician) and other types of threats.
Will Rutherford fold like Rogers did? Stay tuned.
The obvious problem is that this is a game of asymmetric warfare. You know the line: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity.”
Normies who crave comity and value norms and institutions are more likely to fold to pressure. Meanwhile, radical right-wingers are rewarded by a system where the worst get on top.
That’s not to say Jordan should start measuring for drapes quite yet. As I write this, he is still shy of the requisite 217 votes needed to become speaker, though he is inching towards that goal; a vote is scheduled for Tuesday on the floor of the House.
Traditionally, a nominee would hope to avoid a public vote unless he were reasonably sure to win (this is why Scalise dropped out).
But Jordan’s calculus is different. With MAGA grassroots on his side, he figures that holding a public vote will either encourage wayward Republicans to support him or smoke out his enemies. Either way, it will facilitate the next wave of high-pressure campaigns designed to whip them in line.
“I’ll vote my conscience, which is a ‘no,’ but I don’t want to be a punching bag for the next three days,” one member told The Washington Post. “Right now, Jordan is woefully short on votes, and his team wants to beat folks into submission."
In many ways, this pressure campaign harkens back to the way Trump sicced his MAGA minions on Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to persuade the senator to see things his way. First, Trump gave out his phone number during the 2016 campaign. And then, after Jan. 6, 2021 (when Graham announced he had had enough), Graham was heckled and harassed by Trump supporters at the airport.
And Jordan has something going for him that even Trump lacks: The capacity to at least pretend to play nice. As the pro-Jordan pressure campaign heats up, Jordan, himself, is launching a sort of charm offensive—transforming from heel to babyface, as it were.
In Rep. Mike Rogers’ endorsement, for example, Rogers says he and Jordan “had two cordial, thoughtful, and productive conversations over the past two days.”
And in a recent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), who supports Jordan, said Jordan’s “reputation has changed over time” and that he has “become part of the solution.”
Has Jordan, 59, suddenly found Jesus, or is he just gaslighting us?
At least give him credit for hustling. Jordan, who is holding one-on-one meetings with various holdouts, sent out a unifying and optimistic “Dear colleague” letter on Monday that promises to “bring all Republicans together.”
Sincere or not, Team Jordan’s “good cop/bad cop” routine is smart. It provides normal Republicans with an off-ramp to support Jordan, while also saving face. It is, after all, more honorable to be sweet-talked than to be intimidated.
If Jim Jordan becomes Speaker Jordan, that’s what they will tell themselves, anyway.
